Tevye The Dairyman: Stories by Sholem Aleichem

"Anatevka" based on Aleichem’s birthplace. Set near Kyiv, Ukraine, the area was then a part of the Russian Empire. Meet Tevye’s daughters and read their trials and tribulations. Observe how Aleichem's stories shift in tone, as they are written over the period 1895 to 1916, with pogroms (violent riots) intensifying against the Jews. Aleichem left his country in the midst of writing these stories, wandering through Europe and ending up in New York. Noted for his many Yiddish stories of life in the shtetl, this popular author was sometimes called “the Jewish Mark Twain.” The interconnected stories of Tevye the Dairyman are among his most beloved. Translator Aliza Shevrin adds Talmudic quotations to the text to help the reader better understand Tevye’s colorful “interpretations.” Our text is Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor's Son (Penguin Classics, 2009) by Scholem Aleichem.